Of Devils and Blacksheep
by JonesyB
Summary: Modern teenager Neve Porter continues to have nightmares of pirates claiming she has cursed Aztec gold that belongs to them. The girl would do anything to make the voices go away,but would she embark on an adventure that may end her and her sister's life?
1. Chapter 1

_A Pirate's Life for Me! A game only meant for the bravest to try it. Good luck to you sailor, for you may be a pirate! _

_Though, warned all pirates be. Until the curse is lifted. Until the blood runs free. _

_The gold was stolen, it must be returned. Travel to Isla de Mueta, where your fate is learned. Out wit the villains and beat the knaves. But be also warned, this game could mark your grave._

_If this is keeping you from debating; if you lose, death is permanent, and the only way of escaping._

_Once the curse is lifted, and blood has run free. Shoot the evil Captain and declare "a pirates life for me!"_

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Of Devils and Black Sheep  
_JonesyB_

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I stood awkwardly in the center of a frenzied crowd.

No, I suppose frenzied isn't quite the correct way to explain this particular crowd. I believe the words I'm looking for are blood thirsty, ravenous, war crazed, barbarians.

Even though I could elaborate upon the mass of dirty men who hollowed words I have not heard as they pushed by me at the center of a ship deck, I could do the same for my feelings.

The scene was real. There I was, your average teenage girl, being bombarded by men clad in Errol Flynn attire. I could smell the thick, salty, hot, sea air as it breezed by on the midsummer night. I could, of course, feel the men's sticky bodies pressing against me before they shoved me to the side with a crude "Move wench!"

I could do all but react to the scene that played out before my eyes, as if I were dropped in the center of climatic battle I had no part in.

Every way I turned, an irate face was there to meet my terrified one. I screamed girlishly as I turned to see a man pull out a long sword before me.

The brute stepped an inch away from my face and yelled so closely I could smell his fowl breathe, "Give over the gold, lass!"

I starred at him, lost for words, knowing if I decided to speak it would be in inaudible gibberish. I had no clue what he was speaking of. I had no gold. I wasn't even apart of this fight, or whatever it was these animals called it.

Just as the man was raising the sword against me, another taller man stepped in, he roughly grabbed the man's arm that held the weapon.

The taller man sneered a quick, jabbing sentence that I figured meant for the man to leave, since he quickly backed away.

This man, my savior I presume, looked to me. He was steady and strong willed appearing. He was wearing a large be-plumed hat and a scraggly beard sprung from his chin. I had to do a double take to the creature that resided obediently on his shoulder; a small attentive monkey. Another notable, if not frightening, feature about the man was a long scare that spread from his eye to his cheek. His eyes looked almost inhuman, as they were dull like fogged glass.

"The gold calls to us," he said over the echo of canons firing in the distance. His gravely voice sent a chill through me as I stood uneasily before him. "Warned, all pirates be," he continued, "Until the cures is lifted. Until the blood runs free."

I stepped back just missing his hand grabbed hastily for my neck.

"I- I don't have any gold!" I cried.

He smirked before beginning a slow chuckle that sounded through the dark and gained the attention of every man on the ship. I searched around me as the crew's concentration shot to where I stood. My heart began to beat out of my chest as they slowly surrounded me like the walking dead in a zombie novella.

These men weren't _men_.

I noticed then the crew was skeletal as suddenly as the turning of the tide. They seemed to all be in the stage of death where the flesh began to sloth off their lithe frames.

Having no choice, I turned back to the man that had just moments ago saved my life.

I screamed once again as I saw he was now transformed as well, still laughing to himself as his pet monkey screeched.

"Your blood will run free Miss Neve Porter."

Before he could bark this cold threat, I had shut my eyes as tight as I could.

"It will run across the blade of me knife!" echoed his voice as I opened my eyes and sat straight up in my bed.

I looked around my dark, motionless room.

I swear that gruff voice was there beside me just then. I could still hear the echo of a yell.

* * *

I was starring mindlessly at three empty cans of diet coke and a living room in shambles. A deck of playing cards was scattered across the coffee table, a stack of dirty plates at one end, a herd of used napkins and red plastic cups at the other. And all the while, whatever Lifetime movie that happened to be playing was blaring from the television set.

"Murder! Lust! Desire!" cried the sultry voice over, "Does it tempt you?"

Oh yes.

It was the last week of summer vacation.

Now, it's not that I dislike vacation, especially summer vacation. Living in rural New England, I was the type who begged for spring to come. I was the person who opened every single window at the first sign of winter thawing weather. Capturing that first warm afternoon and letting its sweet, natural smelling breathe waft through the house was what I practically lived for. But then again, I couldn't help but yearn for winter's snow once the dog days of August hit…

Never the matter, it was the end of summer vacation. My last summer vacation. This is so because in a few short days, I would leave home and be whisked away to a place I have only heard of in long winded guidance councilor meetings and whimsical such tales. It was college, and I was scared. Of course that wasn't what I told _them_. I said I would love to live a full state away from home, that I would go to the tutors in the library every other night, that I wouldn't miss _them_.

Yeah, I'm a lying chicken.

Well, for the most part anyway. I always did for some reason want to live at college. People would ask me when I was younger (when my only worry was if I would miss Lizzie McGuire) if I wanted to live at a college light-years away from this cow town. I would always answer, in my small, meek voice; yes. Like I knew that I was meant to leave this place. Like I knew I was meant to be somewhere else.

Which ever way you put it, my roommate was assigned, my diploma was received, and I was all but packed. And now the living room was a wreck, and even though it wasn't all my fault, I knew I was about to get blamed for the whole mess.

Just as I was beginning to make a mental list of the fifty or so things I needed to accomplish in the next half hour, the stack of soda cans blew to the floor as the wind burst into the room.

This was no gentle summer breeze. The great gust almost blew the curtains strait off the wall, and was causing the small herd of plastic cups to being a wobbly dance.

I heaved myself from the couch, thus disproving my theory that it was possible for a seventeen year old to not move for a complete twenty-four hours. I collected the cans tossing them to the garbage before dashing to the windows. The wind was so strong it took an effort to close them, not that the glass panels ever actually slid down with no effort. The house my mother had described so many times as 'falling in love at first sight with' was Edwardian and there for very old.

Looking out the closed windows I noticed how the wind tugged at the large oak tree's limbs that lined the road. How it whistled its way through the leaves and violently rang the wind chimes outside my door. I wondered for a moment if I heard the weather report that morning, and if they had mentioned warnings for thunderstorms.

I backed away from the window and the wind calmed, almost as suddenly as it had began to blow.

"Welcome to New England," I said to myself as I often did when I was puzzled by the bipolar weather.

I glanced back to the mess that seemed to have grown an extra ten dismantled board games behind my back. If I was going to have to drag out the vacuum cleaning, I wasn't putting myself through the torture alone.

With that thought I made my way upstairs around the spiral staircase that lead to the narrow hallway containing three bedrooms. Just when I was about to head to the only room that held a computer, I stopped and stared to my doorway.

"Anna, what are you doing?"

My younger sister looked to me as she seemed to be starring into my room, her thin frame leaning against the door's.

She shrugged, "I heard something."

"Like what?" I asked as I stepped by her. For more than the second time, I was taken back by the sight of my bare room.

My once eccentric bedroom had been stripped of every poster and picture I had taped to the wall since I was ten. The bed was almost all that was left. The rest of the furniture had been removed so the rug could be ripped from the floor. After sixteen years of collecting stains of nail polish, self tanner, and every Gatorade flavor in stock, it was time for it to be laid to rest.

"Like a yell," she said still sounding confused about the matter.

Her words made me freeze.

"What sort of yell?" I questioned.

She frowned, "Relax, I just thought your TV was on or something."

We both glanced to the miniature set, it's black surface only showed our own reflection back to us.

She looked to me, "Well obviously I was wrong."

"This isn't like when you swore you heard the Chupacabra is it? Because if you seriously heard something coming from _this _room, I wanna know," my stern voice made her narrow her eyebrow.

"Neve, I'm hungry," was all she said.

I could have ripped my hair out in frustration, "We just ate! I made those pizza things."

"That was _hours _ago," she continued to whine, the sixteen year-old's specialty.

"I don't care, okay?" I cried, "I'll make you whatever you want if you tell me what you heard."

She starred at me and I starred back to her. It was constantly a challenge of wits between the two of us. Always enticing one another with shallow promises we had no intention of keeping.

"It was a yell," she finally said.

"I know that! What did it say?"

"I don't know," she thought for a second, "It was a deep man's voice, could have been Charlie," she said of our next door neighbor.

I shook my head, "He's at work, everyone's at work. There's no way you could have heard him from across our yard anyway."

"Why do you care so much about what I heard anyway?"

I glared to Anna, "Because I think-"

"You heard it too?" she asked stepping closer to me.

"No, I mean, not a moment ago anyway."

She gazed to me with her mouth gaping open before breaking into a large smiling "Well that's _perfect _then, our house is haunted!"

"The house is not haunted, it was the wind you heard."

"What about when you heard it?" she asked suddenly forgetting about her hunger pains.

"A nightmare," I answered pointedly sitting on my bed, "I had a dream about… well about a lot of random stuff. At least I thought I was dreaming when I head that voice."

Anna's mouth couldn't open any larger. For her, this must all be a dream come true. She was obsessed with the occult. Up until now she was content with her King novels and ScFi Channel marathons of various ghost hunting escapades. Now, I was afraid she'd be driven to setting up a night vision camera and powdering my bedroom floor for footprints that ghosts apparently had the feet to make.

Even though Anna and I were sisters, we were very much different, only our looks truly matching. We were about the same height and weight. She had thick auburn hair that fell just past her shoulders, mine was a couple of shades darker and nearly two feet longer. As she was always the more athletic one, her hair was always shorter, always hidden under a Yankees cap, always up as she ran across our yard to catch the football.

I guess I would be the more introverted one, even though I would never actually describe myself that way. I would just rather be in a quiet place reading, or painting.

"Well, what did the voice say?" she asked. Her question brought me back to the current dilemma and reminded me of what happened the previous night.

I could still smell the smoke and feel the sweat of the other men.

"It said, 'Warned, all pirates be. Until the curse is lifted. Until…"

Anna searched my eyes, "Until what?"

"Until the blood runs free."

The room was silent up until my mother slammed the door shut and informed us she was home. The sudden noise nearly caused the both of us to jump out of our skin.

Anna's large brown eyes looked to me then, "How did you remember exactly what that voice said in your dream, Neve? Don't you think that's… really weird?"

I shook my head, "It just came to me. I mean, it's probably not what I head. It's just a nightmare anyway!"

It was a bland excuse, but it was all I could say. I had scared my sister and was well on my way to frightening myself. If she hadn't said something about a yell, I doubt I would have remembered my dream. It all happened so quickly.

Anna left the room and I soon wondered why I hadn't done the same.

"Who made this mess?" I heard my mother's voice inquire as I descended the staircase.

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**A/N: **Yes! It is the creation of a person (with far too much time on her hands) who had recently watched Jumanji and has a need to throw a Pirate of the Caribbean theme into literally everything. Yeah, that would be me. Please tell me what you think c:


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Thank you all very much for the comments, favorites, and alerts. Please tell me what you think about this chapter too :D

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Hours later, after a dinner on our back porch accompanied by a long walk around the block, my mind as clear of nightmares. I was wrapped in the cozy arms of summer. It locked me away from the rest of the world, if only for its few fleeting moments. I don't think it was possible to feel more content there, in its familiar embrace, but it couldn't keep me locked away for long. As ten p.m. rolled around and I found myself once again blinded by the nakedness of my room, I realized this summer would not last much longer.

I collapsed into my bead, then into the pitch-black unconsciousness of sleep.

My eyes opened with a blink. I had stepped strait into a sixteenth century tavern. Men shouted hobbling about the room as women laughed and hung onto their arms. The overbearing sent of alcohol, and several other foul orders, rushed to my nose. I felt the top of my head to realize I was wearing a large, wide brimmed, hat. Looking down I saw I was dressed in ratty, sixteenth centaury clothes. I could feel the stiff corset pushing in my chest and striating my back. Just as I was about to look down to see my shoes, a man was at my side.

Before I even got a good look at him, he took me by my arm and ushered me to a seat at a lone table. I noted that he smelled heavily of alcohol which could have been because he was just sitting in the tavern for too long, or that he was a crazy, alcoholic, stranger.

"Keep your voice low," he instructed before he took the seat across from me at the wooden table.

I sat down and stared to him as he glanced all around. His whole being on the alert as if a fox in the middle of the hunt. It made me rather uncomfortable. Just when I was beginning to think of walking away, he looked at me.

Even though I knew nothing about this boy, he wasn't some one I knew at school, or an actor (the men usually the focus of my dreams), I immediately felt him. I sensed his stern glare through his emerald eyes, the tension in his brow, and the worry he had spread across his features (those amazingly handsome features). He had a scruffy face that was framed by dark blonde hair that fell from a weathered tricorne. I noticed how young he appeared, maybe in his early twenties or late teens.

I looked back to his light, gleaming eyes. He _was _good looking, but then again, why would I imagine an ugly boy to talk to me in a dream? It happens enough in reality…

"Neve, don't let the gold lure you here, don't let the game bribe you!" he stated in a voice that shook with intensity. It was then I noticed how he did not speak like the men from my previous dream, he spoke like me, like an American.

"What are you talking about? Who are you?"

He shook his head, "That doesn't matter, girl. They are trying to get you to find the game, they will not stop."

I laughed under my breath, "Who is tying to bribe me? And what about a game?"

He took my wrist roughly, "You shouldn't laugh at this. You could die, Anna could die."

I questioned to myself how he knew my sister's name, but the thought left my head as his grip tightened on my hand.

"They are pirates Neve. Cold blooded murderers who will stop at absolutely nothing to get the medallion that _you _hold."

"I don't have a medallion," I scoffed, "why are you telling me all of this?"

He released my wrist and reached for my neck. His rough fingertips brushed against my collarbone, following the line of my dress until I felt him tugging at a necklace chain around my neck. He pulled a coin shaped object out from under my corset presenting it before my face.

I looked to him slightly surprised to a see a small smirk tugging at his mouth.

I snatched the medallion from his hand to get a better look at it. The menacing grin of a skull glared back to me. I knew it was not a normal piece of gold, just holding it in my palm struck fear into my heart. I thought of what the men had said in my previous nightmare; how they asked me for the gold, how the man who laughed wickedly said it called to him.

"How did this get on my neck?" I asked to the boy meekly, fear gripping at my soft voice.

"The voices put it there, just as there putting these thoughts in you head."

With that he lunged across the table placing his lips square onto mine. I tried to pull back but he placed a hand at the back of my head.

I was in disbelief, he was kissing me… why was he kissing me?

I closed my eyes as tightly as I screamed against his lips.

I screamed because it was real, I couldn't push him back, I could taste the rum on his tongue, I could feel the pressure of his palm on my hair.

My eyes then shot open and I was met with darkness. I was sitting up in my bed, no longer a tavern wench in the mid 1700s.

As my eyes adjusted to my dimly lit room, I remembered back on the dream, my hand flew to my neck. I felt for the cold necklace that was there only a moment ago.

There was no necklace and no medallion, but still, I gasped loudly to myself. I could still _taste _his lips.

I thought I had gone crazy. It was only a dream. I must just be tasting the kool-aid from earlier, or the soda I had only hours ago. Although neither one of those contain any amount of alcohol.

This couldn't have been the first time a cute boy kissed me in a dream I had. Why had this been so different? Why can't I stop picturing those eyes of his, or that smooth voice? It was as if I just had spoke to him, in real life.

I reached without looking to my wall to flip on the light. As the ceiling light succeeded in momentarily blinding me, I caught glimpse of a figure standing at my door.

In an instinctual act, I fell of my bed and continued to scream covering my head. The mysterious figure began to laugh at this and quiet girlishly, might I ad.

"I swear Anna, that wasn't funny," I groaned.

My younger sister was too busy splitting her side to care about my well being as I heaved myself back to my bed.

"Kinda was actually," she retorted.

"Not after the nightmare I just had! Why the hell are you here anyway?" I glanced to my alarm clock at the side of my bed, "It's five in the morning. The sun is barley up yet."

She stopped laughing then, "You had another nightmare?"

"Yeah," I said pulling the covers over my shoulders, "it sucked."

"I heard the yell again," she said earnestly with not a hint of laughter, even after my hilarious (or painful) fall.

I was silent for a moment, the only noise to be heard was the jovial chirping of birds from my open window.

"I don't care," I lied.

"Well you should!"

"Why?" I cried.

"Because it's weird. It's really, really weird! The noise is coming from this room and it sounds like," she took a long pause seeming to choose her next words carefully, "a scene straight from a movie. One with a corny title like Adventures on the High Seas."

"You mean, it sounds like… pirates?" I asked quietly almost scared to even question her.

"Yes! Like pirates, like a canon firing, and the sea, and-"

Before she could finish her sentence, a noise began. It began quietly, with just a single yell, but soon it escalated. The noise made Anna jump closer to me and scream a shriek putting my own to shame.

I shot out of bed, attempting to run for my door, but failing miserably and colliding with Anna.

The noise was as if someone had just turned on a radio. It was loud and clear, ringing of several yelling voices and continuing to grow. The voices were randomly shouting, impossible to understand what they were saying separately. Anna was also right about the other noises. I could hear the ocean, and canon fire, along with the sound of metal hitting together, like a sword fight. It was the scene from my dream I had the last night. It _had _to be.

"Where is it coming from?" she yelled above the noise.

I looked around my room before paying closer attention to the wooden floor. The old wood was in poor shape, being it was over ninety years old. It was beginning to turn up in places and looked as if it served for the floor of a troupe of tap dancers.

"I think it's coming from the floor," I said parting from her side and walking toward the corner of the room, letting the noise lead me.

Just then, the wind picked up, just as randomly as it had the other day. It ripped through my room, slamming the door shut.

Anna once again screamed turning to leave.

"Wait!" I exclaimed as I looked to the floor now having to yell over the wind and this unexplained noise. "Come over here and look at this!"

"No, I'm getting mom!"

I dropped to my knees and examined the floor. As I reached closer to this particular plank of wood, the voices rose to a deafening volume. The wood I felt was loose, I noticed I could easily pry it back, as if it was meant to lift open.

So I did.

"Oh my god!" Anna cried. I was surprised she was still standing near the door. "You can't do that!" she continued, "Why are you doing that?"

I tossed the short plank of wood to the side, and all at once, the voices ended.

My eyes fell upon a dusty, dirty, box that couldn't have been more than a foot's width and length.

Anna clutched the doorknob in silence as I pulled the wooden box from its hidden spot and placed it on the floor next to me.

Anna stepped closer to me then, her eyes cautiously examining the box as if it could come alive at any second.

I brushed off the layer of dust that had collected over its surface, and as I did so, words appeared.

Blowing the rest of the dirt away, I was able to read the print that was spread across the box like a banner, "A Pirate's Life for Me!" I stated in awe.

Anna kneeled across from me, the both of us breathing as if we had just run a marathon.

I continued to read the print on the box aloud, "A game only meant for the bravest to try it. Good luck to you sailor, for you may be a… a pirate."

Anna looked up to me wordlessly proclaiming her uncomfortable she was about the whole situation.

I looked back over the box's cover. It had the most remarkable illustrations, I noticed one straight away to be the man from my first dream. The other man was shorter, he was depicted raising a bottle upwards as he smiled warmly.

"We can at least open it," said Anna.

I agreed by carefully opened the box, taking my time.

"Hell Neve, it isn't made of glass or something!" she shouted making me jump.

"I'm sorry," I began without really meaning it, "I've never handled a magic game before!"

She grabbed mindlessly for words, "What makes you think its magic?"

"What makes you think it _isn't_?"

We looked to the game sharing no more fast words.

"Okay, we'll… look at it," began Anna, "we should burn it after or something."

"Uh, no!" I cried, "That could be like burning a _Ouija _board!"

"What happens if you burn that?"

"I don't know, shouldn't you know these types of things?"

Once again, we were silent. The open covered game starred to us while the happy faces of the sailors and pirates mocked us.

I bit my lip pondering if I should share my next words, if I should tell Anna what that boy just told me in my dream. I decided not to, it was only a dream. She'd think I was crazy.

Anna took the cover in her hand carefully, she looked over the words printed on the back.

"What's it say?" I asked.

She squinted as she read aloud, "Guidelines, the rules of the game. Any man that falls behind is left behind. Those who follow their captain, follow him to Hell if need be. Any man who cheats will be marooned for eternity."

"Does it say how to play?"

"It only has this long paragraph… directions maybe?"

"Well, read them," I said understanding I may regret my words.

"Though, warned all pirates be." she began, "Until the curse is lifted. Until the blood runs free," her head snapped up to look at me. "Holy _shit_," she cursed under her breathe, "that's what you said that voice said!"

"Keep reading!" I retorted harshly, she looked nervously back to the box cover.

"The gold was stolen, it must be returned. Travel to Isla de Mueta, where your fate is learned. Out wit the villains and beat the knaves. But also be warned, this game could mark your grave. If this is keeping you from debating; if you lose, death is permanent, and the only way of escaping. Once the curse is lifted, and blood has run free. Shoot the evil Captain and declare "a pirates life for me!"

She placed the box cover down and I got up.

She watched as began to walk towards my door, "Put that back, I'm not playing it."

"But, why?"

I looked back to her, how could she ask me that? Did she actually want to play?

"I mean," she continued, "It's just a game… what's the harm in playing a board game?"

"Did you even hear what you just read?"

"It sounds awesome, Neve."

I put a hand to my hip, "Death is permanent, that's real awesome there Anna," I said with as much sarcasm as I could fit in the short sentence.

"Fine. But you said we could look at it. It's got to be over a hundred years old, as old as this house probably! It's like we're archeologists!"

"I'll tell you what Indiana, you can die by death of Scrabble while I go have some coffee."

"But it could be our last adventure before you leave!" she cried desperate to get me to stay, "Come on, this could be fun!"

Her words made me realize how childish I was being. It _was _just a board game. The worst that could happen is she'll win and gloat about it for the rest of the day. I walked back to where I had gotten up from.

"All right," I said sourly.

She pulled out a black board that unfolded to present an oval of square shaped places for the gaming tokens to go. She also pulled out a container of playing cards, a pair of dice, and two small metal ships.

"Oh look," she said pointing to the board, "there's a bit of writing here. It says, to begin, each sailor must role the dice and draw a card for character in game. Ooh. Role playing," she commented with a grin, "Once characters are decided, continue to roll dice and choose card."

I snatched the dice, "I can't believe I'm doing this. This thing looks like the most boring game ever designed."

"Come on Neve, don't you want to be a pirate?" she asked in mock excitement.

I flashed a fake smile and let the dice fall from my hands, "So now I just pick a card, makes the dice slightly pointless, don't you think?"

She shrugged as I reached for a card, "This better not take all morning I have things to-"

My stomach leaped as I saw my name on the card.

"What?" questioned Anna.

"It says… Neve Porter, Pirate Captain."

Anna snatched the card from my hand, her eyes instantly growing in size.

"Still want to play?" I asked.

She reached for the deck of cards, presumably to read the backs.

"Cheating," I gasped grabbing her hand, "It said no cheating."

She pulled her hand back, "It's just a game Neve," she said, I wondered if she truly believed that.

She handed the card back to me and I glanced over what I hadn't read.

"Wise, creative minded, and pure of heart. Skilled in sword fighting, always carrying an adorned sword stolen from a dead Navy Officer. Aztec Gold necklace constantly at her neck. It was given to her by her deceased pirate father, she treasures it."

Anna quickly rolled the dice and chose the next card.

She stared frozen at the card, "Anna Porter, first mate."

"Well," I said getting up for the second time, "very interesting game, I've had more than enough!"

"You can't leave now. It's begun," said Anna without an ounce of humor.

I fell back down, "It's all your fault!" I exclaimed in frustration for not listening to my own heart, or to at least that blonde boy. "If I die, I am going to haunt you and I won't leave even if you get the Ghost Busters themselves-"

"Relax!" she said putting her hands up defensively.

I shook my head, "No, I'm not going to relax. The game knows our names!"

"The game doesn't know anything, it's a game."

"Then how can you explain this?" I cried waving my card in her face.

"I can't explain it, but sometimes things don't need to be explained." She then handed the dice to me, "Do it for the adventure, for the pirate in you."

"There is no pirate in me," I scoffed taking the dice.

I threw them to the wooden floor as Anna placed our ship shaped tokens on the first block.

I held my breath before grabbing the next card, then reading it.

I looked on amazed as the card began to write itself. Black ink began to appear letter by letter as if being written with a quill.

"L-lady luck has left you side," I read as my hand shook, "as you enter a storm as restless as the tide."

As soon as the words were spoken, the room rocked as if we were on a ship. A new sound erupted as the wind, once again, picked up from outside my window.

"Neve!" cried my sister as she clumsily collected the pieces of the game, throwing them into the box.

I looked up and saw a swirl of black clouds eating away at my ceiling, consuming the walls, consuming everything that was left of my room. Water began to pour from the blackness as I shielded my eyes.

"I told you Anna!" I yelled as now we were on the open sea on a grand ship full of crew mates running about. "I told you!"


	3. Chapter 3

"Captain!" cried a drenched man looking to me, "Take the mast!"

"What?" I asked almost blinded by the rain that relentlessly beat my face.

My hand met my forehead to shield my eyes, I glanced around.

"The mast!" yelled the man back to me, "the storm's brewin' worse then I'd predicted!"

With this warning the man ran past me in a frenzied state. I continued to look around this massive ship. The sky was a dark green. I didn't think it was possible for the sky to take on such a hue, it was the ugliest sight I'd ever seen.

Also, the wind was whipping the sea air at me like an invisible whip. I thought if I took a step, I'd be blown into the great briny blue.

I was dreaming, I _had _to be dreaming.

I turned around on the deck to see Anna searching the ground, she collided with me as the ship lurched to the side.

She looked to be wearing just what the men were in my first nightmare. A large white tunic, a blue bandana, tight black trousers and tall brown boots. I noticed the dagger on her thick belt the card had alluded to.

"The game!" she shrieked, "I can't find the game, all I have is the dice!"

She opened her fist to me to show the small, worn, black spotted cubes.

I turned around to search the deck, as I did a hand instinctually grabbed the large hat on my head. It had been the same type of hat from my previous dream only feeling five pounds heavier due to the drenching rain.

I stumbled a few feet forward before realizing how impossible it was to maneuver on a slippery deck in pounds of soaking undergarments. How could any human be agile in layers of wet coats, cumbersome leather boots, and a long sword that seemed to be more of burden to carry than anything else?

I fell in a heap to the floor, an older man happened to be at my side to take me by the arm.

"Cap'n!" he exclaimed heaving my up to my feet, "What the bloody hell are ye doin'?" his voice harsh with a thick Irish accent.

I tried to look at him, the wind and rain making it impossible to clearly see his face.

"I'm sorry… what should I do?" I asked understanding it was something a Captain probably would never say.

He let go of my arm, I could tell he was confused by my words.

"Is there something the matter with you, Cap'n?"

Before answering his question, I caught sight of the board game sliding across the ship. Pushing past the man, I lunged for the game. Running on the wet deck I happened to slip landing on my stomach, the game just out of reach. With a final lunge, I grabbed the game just before it slid between the railing and was lost forever to the sea.

I shakily found my footing to see Anna wobbling to my side.

"We need to get out of this rain!" I cried, "Where the hell are we?"

"Don't you know Neve?" she yelled back, twice as heated, "We're on a ship! We're in the game!"

"That's impossible, what makes you so sure anyway?"

Just as I asked her this, another wave smashed into the side of the ship. We danced across the deck, her clinging do the dice as I clung to the rest of the game.

"Come on, we have to find some place that isn't loud, wet, and constantly rocking!" I yelled taking her arm.

"Good luck with that," she called back, "we're on a pirate ship if you haven't noticed!"

Having on only the most simple teaching on these types of ships (teachings that consisted of seventh grade fieldtrips to old fashioned sea ports) I was reminded that the stair case to below deck was usually found in the center of the ship. Spotting the doorway, I took my sister by her wrist and cumbersomely slipped toward it.

We made our way below deck, the only sound to be heard was an incessant dripping and the fierce howling of the winds above.

We entered a nook that appeared to be used for storage since it was cluttered with wooden boxes and barrels.

I threw the game box onto a barrel top before leaning against a stack of wooden crates to catch my breath.

Anna, with a loud sigh, collapsed finding a spot to rest on a box, "How could this have really happened, Neve?" she asked removing the bandana from her hand and ringing it out. "Where did this thing come from anyway?"

I looked to her wet and scraggly form before glancing away.

"It's all my fault. He warned me…"

Anna looked up to me, her slick face illuminated by a lantern seated on a barrel top, "Who warned you?"

I, once again, wondered if I should tell her. I thought better of myself for the second time. This situation was weird enough, I didn't want to make it any stranger.

"Never mind, I'm just thinking out loud here."

"Oh," she said as a silence fell between us.

"God," I sighed sounding on the brink of tears, "why did I have to get Captain?"

"Well because _I'm _the first mate," Anna answered.

My hands removed my hat as I sunk to the floor, "_What the hell_," I moaned.

Anna looked to me, "Hey, maybe if I take my roll something will change again."

"I don't think that's how it works," I thought for a moment, "do you remember what the directions said?"

"Something about cursed pirates, permanent death, killing a man and shouting _"a pirate's life for me"?_"

I nodded, "There you go. That's what we have to do to get out of here."

An echo of thunder rang through the ship as we sat in the dimly lit room.

"I still have to roll," she said opening the game.

"Wait," I said stopping her.

She looked up to me confused, "What is it, Neve?"

"We can't do this, _I _can't do this!"

She looked to me with out remorse, "It's a little late for that, you know."

I shook my head, "You're only saying that because you don't have to be the Captain."

"It can't be _that _hard-"

"Why don't you go do it then? I don't even know how these men talk!" I cried.

She stood up before me, "Just say aye and _yarr _a few times. It'll really get the point across."

I looked to her blankly, "Are you serious? Do you even understand what just happened? We somehow get transported to the middle of the sea with a bunch of pirates, and all you can do is tell me to act like an ass in front of men… with guns… that could kill us?" as I said ranted she began to walk away from me, apparently sick of my sour attitude.

"I think the damn card really should have made _me _Captain."

I frowned, "Like you could command a ship! Obviously it chose me for some reason, maybe for my reasonable thinking…"

"Then stop complaining," she cried, escalating the argument, "I don't know how we're here, but we are. Actually, this sort of thing happens all the time. People just walk strait through a black whole and bam! They're in another world, another century."

"That happens… all the time?"

She nodded assured, "It's logical!"

"If you're stoner."

"Neve, the way I see it we only have one option; complete the game."

I gaped to her serious expression. Her eyes glared through mine as if we were in the middle of a starring contest of life and death.

"You're scarring me," I finally stated.

"Scared? Cap'n, I never heard ye saw that 'fore," came a voice that made me and Anna jump. We looked to the nearby staircase to see a young boy. He looked to be between the age of thirteen or fifteen though he was so thin, he could pass for much younger.

Anna and I starred to him, our mouths gaping open. He only smirked back, his face hidden under a drenched straw hat while a dirty tunic and slacks that stopped at his ankles completed his penniless look. His face was so heavily covered in dirt, I couldn't tell what ethnicity he was.

As he smirked to us I noticed he had several gold covered teeth, while several more were missing.

"Cap'n, is everything okay? Looks as if you just met the devil himself!" exclaimed the boy looking to me.

"Uh well… boy," I began standing to my feet, "we seem to be having a lot of problems with the storm and all."

"Why do you talk like that?" asked Anna without warning. I nudged her hard on the arm.

"This be how I always speak," he said before his eyes lit up, as if he'd suddenly remembered something, "The storm Cap'n! Rosen said we'd sail straight through, you know how we have our disagreements but against me better judgment, I agreed." he glanced away from us deep in thought, "Guess that wasn't such a good idea…"

"Yes well clearly we have made the wrong decision," I said sternly.

"Aye," he said to me, "we need you aboard Cap'n, the winds blowin' so hard, I thought I'd be lost to Davey Jones' Locker for sure!"

"Well…" I began again awkwardly, "isn't that the truth, sailor."

"_Yarr_," added Anna suddenly at my side.

The boy narrowed his brow to the both of us, "I'll go tell the men you'd be coming then," he said before scurrying back to the deck.

I turned to Anna, "You are a disgrace!"

She ignored my remark and grabbed for the game before throwing the cover off of it.

"We have a game to finish here, Cap'n."

"Just roll the dice and read you're card, and try not to be so annoying," I snapped turning my head back to her and the stupid game.

I watched as produced the game board from the box. I was shocked to see our tokens had not moved, it was frozen in just the way we had left it as she laid it open on the barrel top.

"Wish me luck," she said readying her hand to roll.

"Luck," I said under my breath.

The dice waltzed across the board before tripping to a stop. She snatched a card from the deck after moving her token forward.

She watched on as the card began to write itself, just like it had to me earlier.

I saw as her eyes lit with a spark, she smiled up to me, "Can you believe it?"

I sighed, "Just read it already!"

She glanced back to the card and was quiet for a long moment before her voice began to echo in the small, damp, storage space again.

"Even though this storm will soon see its end, you're not out of trouble in the least. For your ship is heading west, and the nearest pirate port is… to the east!"

I looked to her at this, "To the east?" she asked alarmed, "We have to turn the ship around, _you _have to the ship around!"

* * *

**A/N:** Thank you again for reviewing/faving/alerting! Tell me what you think ; )


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